Heritage gardens

The park at the estate was installed in the 1980s and is currently being restored.  There is a rosarium next to the guesthouse.  Only a few apple trees have survived, though one of them offers an outstanding healthy variety of apples, "Prinzenapfel." This rare and historical variety can be found in old gardens in Kurzeme.

Since late 18th century, the Blankenfelde Estate is surrounded by a large forest park (12 ha). The landscape park of 4 ha, with gravel paths has been renovated. The owners are proud of the old and new plantings of elder. There are young fruit and berry plantations. The harvest is processed into tasty juices, syrups, wine.

Established 1960. Number of species: ~100 species of trees and shrubs, including 25 local species, as well as 16 species of rhododendrons. Unique plants - Latvia’s oldest magnolia (50 y.o.), a Smoke Tree (Cotinus coggygria) that is 45 years old, a Gingko Tree (Ginkgo biloba), and others.

Since late 18th century, the Blankenfelde Estate is surrounded by a large forest park (12 ha). The landscape park of 4 ha, with gravel paths has been renovated. The owners are proud of the old and new plantings of elder. There are young fruit and berry plantations. The harvest is processed into tasty juices, syrups, wine.

The garden features a collection of traditional and aromatic plants, along with gardens in which ancient types of plants are grown.  The owners grow carrots, beets, cabbages, etc., particularly focusing on a large variety of tomatoes.  There are also important onion and garlic collections with various types.  Aromatic and medicinal plants include various ones that are used in traditional folk medicine.

More than 250 types of plants grow in the garden.  An ethnographic garden has been planted to typify such gardens in the coastal area of Lithuania, with various flowers that are characteristic of the region.  The garden has 14 different types of plants, including herbs.  The venue offers educational programmes and room for picnics.

The museum has an interesting exhibition about the vineyard, and it organises various events and wine tastings.  The garden is carefully nurtured by the Dviete parish workers, which has planted beds of flowers and herbs.  A rosarium is being established.  Perfect grape plants can be seen in the garden, all of them chosen by Sukatnieks and other selectors in Latvia.  There are also other plants chosen by Sukatnieks, including black currant, gooseberry and quince bushes.

The Rundāle place garden is remarkable as a fully completed project by the architect Rastrelli. The laying out the Rundāle Palace Garden took place by 1740 alongside the construction of the palace. The original planning was preserved to enable renovation in 1975. The Baroque garden in Rundāle Palace Park with its ornamental parterre, the Green Theatre, the labyrinth and 19 bosquets occupies 10 hectares. In front of the garden, there is a rose garden covering an area of 1 hectare and presenting a collection of ca 2230 historical and modern rose cultivars.

The grounds of Rundāle Palace ensemble amount to 85 hectares, of which 3.4 hectares is a forest park. It is also planned to create orchards to both sides of the palace with a collection of historical cultivars of trees and shrubs. The West side orchard is being developed under an EU Interreg project.   Today, the palace building complex enjoys an invaluable advantage of being situated in an untouched rural landscape.

Outside the house is a unique and impressive fruit orchards.  The father of the aviator planted fruit trees in the late 19th century to produce several types of apples.  Old decorative plants in the garden are typical of the region, and a new garden has recently been installed in the territory.

The garden has flowers which the author loved, as well as various types of ancient apple trees.  The garden has a particularly large range of decorative plants, mostly perennial and popular wild plants.

Interesting objects at the farm include an Italian-style kitchen garden and flower garden that were restored by Elza Stērste.  The wisteria that are at the home may be the only one in Latvia that blooms outside during warm years.  A very old and large apple tree may represent the Avenarius type of trees.  Dating back to the 1930s is a Manchurian walnut tree, which has produced many shoots, ancient lilacs, a rare Kazdanga cherry three and hazelnut trees.  The willows are 400 years old, and Latvia's largest horse chestnut tree (circumference of 4.4 m) dates back to the 1870s.

The Kazdanga Castle park is huge (196 ha), and until recently it was owned by an agricultural school.  Kazdanga is the birthplace of once-famous sour cherries.  This variety has all but disappeared, but the park still features a few old apple trees, one of them with two grafted varieties of apples.  There are old hazelnut and other nut trees, including a Manchurian walnut tree and a hybrid with a royal walnut tree.  Recently, two royal walnut tree plants were gifted to the garden by selectionist Gunvaldis Vēsmiņš.  Other rarities in the park include bristly roses, a rare variety of mountain-ash (a new tree), a gingko tree, a katsura tree, a bladdernut tree, a birthwort plant, wild tulips, and a wild maple tree that is depicted in the herald of Kazdanga.  The aromatic garden of Baroness Lieven is being restored with lilacs, bird-cherries, magnolias, roses and others.  An old "rose hill" has been restored with varieties of roses from Salaspils.

The farm is 100 years old and has approximately 113 apple trees, 18 pear trees and eight sweet cherry trees.  The lady of the house also grows herbs such as oregano and peppermint, as well as decorative flowers such as roses, peonies and dahlias.  Contact the venue in advance to organise various educational activities.

The buildings are surrounded by landscaped planting in the area of 10 hectares.  Behind the mansion to the South is a planned Baroque garden with historical varieties of apple trees that were characteristic for the Kurzeme region in the 19th century.  To the West, there is an English landscape park (1.8 ha) that was planted in early 19th century. It was turned eclectic at the end of the 19th century. The park arrangements in the style of Romanticism included open areas, small architectural constructions, decorative bushes, contrasts of light and shadow, small ponds. The park is being reconstructed. Here groups of majestic ash trees can be seen along with lilac, honeysuckle and laurel bushes that have beautiful and aromatic blossoms in the spring to create a special atmosphere.  The estate and its gardens are a cultural monument of national importance therefore only historical cultivars belonging to the particular time and style are preserved and used here.
Tours are available in exchange for donations, but please contact the venue in advance.  A walk through the garden and park will take an hour or two, and the manager will tell you about the history of this estate and other nearby ones, the principles of historical gardens in Europe and the way in which these were brought to bear in designing the Tāšu Estate's garden and park. 

The park has some 120 types of trees and bushes, including 34 local ones.  In the southern part of the park, among ponds and birch trees, is an apple orchard that was planted during World War II and covers 3 ha of land.  Each year the orchard produces various types of apples that are much beloved in Lithuania.  The botanical park covers 57 ha, and the wide areas of grass are handled not by lawnmowers, but instead by sheep.

The apple orchard of the school hosts hay days, which involve a plenary session related to hay sculptures.  The Pļava Museum has a garden of medicinal plants, examples of endangered plants, a trail that encourages barefoot walkers, as well as an environmental classroom that is based on the gifts of nature.  Six vertical video productions are available in four different languages.

To preserve the cultural and historical heritage, a cherry orchard was planted on the banks of the Švete River.  The cherry trees bloom during the first and second week of May, and guests and residents can go to an observation are and sink into the sea of blossoms with their eyes.  The cherries ripen in July, and a festival is organised at that time.

You will learn about how the medicinal plants are grown and processed.  The farm covers more than 30 ha and produces more than 15,000 kg of medicinal plants each year that are offered as teas and mixtures.  A sample garden offers medicinal plants and a bit of information about how they are used.

The author Voldemārs Sauleskalns began to establish the Sauleskalni arboretum in 1945, and he spent his whole life collecting new plants.  They were planted in a documented way, and some of the markings are in Latvian.  The collection mostly features decorative plants, but there are also fruit trees and herbs.  Of interest are eight types of mountain-ash, five types of apples trees, including a few well-known types, as well as sour cherry trees.  Visitors can tour a grape veranda where they can inspect cornelian cherries, a true quince, an old stand of shadbushes, a red-leaf plum tree, three types of hawthorn, a Manchurian nut tree, roses, red-leaf linden trees, decorative raspberry plants and asparagus.  There are also a number of very uncommon plants.  The stand of red oaks trees was planted in honour of the 90th birthday of actor Ēvalds Valters.  There are also beds of winter plants, and at the gates is a noble willow tree that has bent to the ground.

The owner grows various medicinal plants, flowers, herbs and teas.  She also grows carrots, onions, garlic, etc.  The assortment of medicinal plants and herbs is extensive, and the owners offer education about them.  Traditions include pre-wedding parties, as well as an educational programme called "Granny's Teas."

The garden of the old farm is typical, with traditional flowers, medicinal plants and herbs in the style of the 19th century.  The 100-year-old apple tree has been grafted to produce four types of apples.  The only one that remains is the Antonovka apple.

There is also a modern museum with interactive elements and guide services.  The school garden was presumably planted in the 1950s, and it has some 40 types of traditional apple trees, as well as an older type of tree.  The Juzefova Park was planted around the estate in the 18th century and late 19th century.  The estate is gone, but the park has more than 100 types of old and beautiful trees, including oak trees, linden trees, coniferous trees and two cedar pines.  Nearby is a wild pear tree, as well as many wild hazelnut trees.  The park often hosts weddings, and one tradition is to plant trees during the ceremony.

Upmaļi is a biological farm that specialises in medicinal plants that are used to produce teas, hydrolats, infusions, substances with glycerine, etc.  The garden covers eight hectares, including various uncommon useful plants such as the broad whitetop, various herbs, rhubarb plants that date back to the age of aristocrats, as well as old orchards, including a rare apple cultivar that is not found anywhere else in Latvia.  Four types of colourful wild apple trees have grown on the farm since the 1930s, and three of them still produce fruits.  Old gooseberry plants may also date back to the aristocratic era, as is the case with three types of lilac and some ten types of cherries.  The farm also has local types of apple trees, most of them planted by the owner of the farm in the 1930s.  More recent are Greek nut trees.

The farm produces rhubarb, pumpkin and quince candies, apple chips, juices and jams, and tourists can purchase all of these.  It welcomes groups of children who can tour the orchard and taste the products.  The farm has several types of sweet cherry trees, and it is integrated on 24 hectares of land.  2.5 ha of this is devoted to the apple orchard, which produces 30 tonnes of fruit each year to produce apple chips, dried apples, apple juice, etc.  The owners will teach you to produce a crown from fruit tree branches.

The park was established in 1958 and has more than 4,000 types if plants.  The gardens in the park correspond to the pre-war interwar and post-war era.  The garden offers various events, including educational games and lectures.

You will find a range of perennial flowers here and enjoy a decorative pond with water plants.  The botanical garden has a large collection of protected plants, herbs and medicinal plants.  Obelevičus often guides tours through the park.

Višķi boasts one of the best collections of traditional apple trees, many of which are found alongside people's homes.  There are five types of nut trees in the park, including Juglans regia and Juglans stenocarpa.  There are three types of hazelnut trees, three types of hawthorn, five type of rowans, as well as exotic trees such as mulberry, gingko, catalpa and cedar pine trees.